Swanson , Arabic

8/10/2019 Swanson , Arabic

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Arabic as a Christian Language?

The title of this essay, Arabic as a Christian Language?, requires some

explanation. Why the question mark? We know that there were Arabic-speaking

Christians in the Arabian Peninsula before the rise of Islam, including poets such as

Ad y b. Zayd, in whose stanzas we find allusions to stories from the Christian scriptures.

In our own day there are millions of Christians in the Middle East who celebrate their

liturgies and say their daily prayers in the Arabic language. That Arabic has long been,

and continues to be, a language of Christian worship, story-telling, catechesis and

reflection is simply a matter of fact.

It is a matter of fact, however, that strikes many as a surprising, or even an

improper fact -- hence the question mark. Arabic as a Christian language?? Surely

Arabic, the language of the holy Qur a\n, is supremely the language of Islam ! I have met

Muslims from outside the Middle East who are surprised to learn that there are Christians

who address their Arabic prayers to All a\h, and who praise Him in their hymns with many

of the ninety-nine most beautiful names. Furthermore, we sometimes meet Arabic-

speaking Christians within the Middle East who speak as if their use of Arabic in worship

were merely a concession to unfortunate realities. For example, for several years I have

been a member of a group called The Friends of the Arabic Christian Heritage, which

hosts an annual public conference in Cairo. In general these conferences are well

received, but at every conference we can expect at least one Egyptian Christian

participant to criticize the name of our society: the juxtaposition of the words Arabic

and Christian, we are told, is improper. Strictly speaking, we are told, Arabic is an

Islamic language; the proper Egyptian Christian language is Coptic. So we are told. The


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sad irony in this is that many of the people who speak like this know only a few liturgical

phrases and hymns in the Coptic language: they have no real competence in Coptic, and

yet are alienated from their Arabic mother tongue.

In this essay I will briefly describe and discuss the adoption of the Arabic

language by the Christian communities of the Middle East, communities that at the time

of the Arab conquests spoke languages such as Syriac, Aramaic and Greek, and Coptic.

In my second essay I will mention some ways in which conversation between Christian

and Muslim thinkers was enabled by their common Arabic tongue, and by their joint

participation in the intellectual projects of developing Arabic civilization.

The early Islamic conquests - continuity of church life

Within ten years of the death of Muh ammad (A.D. 632), most of Palestine, Syria,

Mesopotamia and Egypt had fallen to the Arab Muslim armies. The Christians of the

region, who were the majority of the population, suddenly found themselves as subject

peoples within a rapidly-expanding Islamic empire. Naturally, the rapid political and

social changes brought about by the Islamic conquests were experienced by many

Christians as disorienting and traumatic. However, some results of the Islamic conquests

were liberating for some Christians. In particular, the Islamic conquests resulted in the

"disestablishment" of the Chalcedonian Christianity supported and, when possible,

imposed by a succession of Byzantine emperors. This resulted in a new freedom of

operation for anti-Chalcedonian Christian communities, including the Copts of Egypt,

which had experienced coercive pressure and even persecution from the Byzantine

authorities. It was the Islamic conquest of Egypt under Amr ibn al- A s that enabled the


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Coptic patriarch Benjamin to resume his public role after ten years of hiding from the

agents of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. The story of the friendly meeting between

the Muslim general Amr and the Coptic patriarch Benjamin is familiar to every Egyptian

schoolchild, and is regularly invoked in discussions of al-wa h\dah al-wat aniyyah

(national unity), the quasi-official Egyptian doctrine of interreligious harmony within a

single Egyptian national identity.

It is important to stress the fact that there was a high degree of continuity of

church life in the Middle East between the periods before and after the Islamic conquests.

There was no rush by Christians to convert to Islam. With only a few rare exceptionsnoted by Christian chroniclers, the Muslims did not compel anyone to convert to their

faith. With the passage of time there did develop pressures on Christians to assimilate

themselves to their Arab Muslim rulers, but these were mostly subtle rather than overt,

and, at least at the beginning, more linguistic and cultural than specifically confessional

in character.

Arabic as the language of Christians

The Muslim Arabs who conquered much of the Christian East in the 630s and

640s -- and who less than a century later extended their conquests to Christian Spain --

spoke Arabic, a language which for them had been sanctified by the revelation of the

Qur an, understood to be the very words of God in clear Arabic speech. Fairly quickly,

the use of Arabic became established throughout the Dar al-Isl am, and not only as a

language of piety and worship. By the year A.D. 697, the Umayyad caliph Abd

al-Maliks coinage reform had resulted in the minting of gold dinars bearing Arabic


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of that century many of the most creative Christian minds in the monasteries of Palestine

were devoting themselves to the production of a Christian literature in Arabic. (1)

It is Egypt that provides us with the best evidence for the language shift to Arabic,

largely because Egypts desert sand preserves papyrus documents so very well. (2) The

study of these documents indicates that Egyptian Christians at first clung to their Coptic

language more tenaciously than Palestinian Christians had held on to their Aramaic.

Around the year A.D. 1050, the evidence of the papyri indicates that most Egyptian

Christians knew Coptic, and used Arabic reluctantly. But by the year A.D. 1200, a mere

century and a half later, the Coptic language was practically dead! From this time on, thedocuments of everyday life (3) are overwhelmingly in Arabic. The clergy still studied

Coptic, but most of them could write it only with the help of grammars and dictionaries,

many of which were produced during the Egyptian Christian literary renaissance -- an

Arabic renaissance, let it be added -- of the 13th century A.D. As in Palestine, although

some centuries later, Christians had gained competence in Arabic but had lost

competence in the traditional language of the Christian community.

Objections

More evidence of the language shift comes in literary sources, where we hear

some sharp reactions to the phenomenon. Consider, for example, the following passage

(1) Professor Sidney Griffith of the Catholic University in America has written many articles on this subject.See, for example, his The Monks of Palestine and the Growth of Christian Literature in Arabic, The

Muslim World 78 (1988): 2-28.(2) On the evidence of the papyri for the linguistic shift, see the work of Leslie S. B. MacCoull, especiallyher Three Cultures under Arab Rule: The Fate of Coptic, Bulletin de la Socit dArchologie Copte 27(1985): 61-70, and The Strange Death of Coptic Culture, Coptic Church Review 10 (1989): 35-43.(3) A.D. 1246 is the date of the latest known marriage contract in the Coptic language.


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of Paul Alvarus, a Christian of Andalusia who wrote in the mid-ninth century A.D. He

bewails the fact that young Christians were cultivating Arabic, and neglecting Latin: (4)

The Christians love to read the poems and romances of the Arabs; they study the Arab

theologians and philosophers, not to refute them but to form a correct and elegant Arabic.

Where is the layman who now reads the Latin commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, or

who studies the Gospels, prophets or apostles? Alas! all talented young Christians read

and study with enthusiasm the Arab books; they gather immense libraries at great

expense; they despise the Christian literature as unworthy of attention. They have

forgotten their language. For every one who can write a letter in Latin to a friend, there

are a thousand who can express themselves in Arabic with elegance, and write better

poems in this language than the Arabs themselves.

A yet more vehement objection to Christian adoption of Arabic comes from Egypt, in an

apocalyptic text -- perhaps of the 11 th century A.D.? -- whose anonymous author puts his

words into the mouth of a seventh century Coptic saint, Samuel of the Monastery of

Qalamoun. According to the story, Samuel complains about the future of the Coptic

church as follows: (5)

[The Christians] do something else, that if I were to tell you of it your hearts would be

greatly pained: they are abandoning their beautiful Coptic language, in which the Holy

Spirit has spoken many times through the mouths of the holy spiritual fathers, and they

are teaching their children from infancy to speak the language of the Arabs, and to take

pride in it! Even the priests and monks -- they as well! -- dare to speak in Arabic and to

take pride in it, and that within the sanctuary! Woe upon woe!!

(4) Cited in R.W. Southern, Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press, 1962), p. 21. Emphasis added.(5) Translated from the Arabic text in: J. Ziadeh, Lapocalypse de Samuel, suprieur de Deir-el-Qalamoun, Revue de lOrient Chrtien 20 (1915-1917): 379-80, 384.


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O my beloved children, what shall I say in these times, when readers in the Church do not

understand what they are reading, or what they are saying, because they have forgotten

their language? These truly are miserable people, deserving of being wept over, because

they have forgotten their language and speak the language of the hijra.

But woe to every Christian who teaches his son the language of the hijra from his

infancy, and causes him to forget the language of his fathers!

Many books of the Church shall fall into disuse, because there shall not remain among

[the Christians] anyone who is concerned with [these] books, because their hearts shall

incline to the Arabic books.

[An elderly monk said to Samuel:] Understand what I tell you, my son. At the time

when the Christians shall have the audacity to speak the language of the hijra inside the

sanctuary .... woe to the Christians at that time! Woe multiplied seven-fold!(6)

The great irony of this text, which was written in Coptic, is that it is preserved only in

Arabic translation!

As the tone of the works just cited makes clear, there was strong opposition in

some quarters -- perhaps especially among Christian monks -- to the adoption of Arabic

by Christians. The Apocalypse of Samuel reveals an attitude that (as I have already

pointed out) may be found in Egypt to the present day: Arabic is the language of the

Muslims; Coptic is the proper language of Egyptian Christians.

(6) For the use of Arabic in church we have evidence already from the beginning of the eighth century: a parchment leaf from a book once used in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Damascus before itsconversion to a mosque under the Umayyad caliph Wal d b Abd al-Malik (A.D. 705-715). The manuscriptleaf preserves a text written in Greek characters, but which makes no sense as Greek. Reading the textaloud, however, it turns out to be Arabic -- an ancient Arabic translation of Psalm 78. Presumably it waswritten with Greek letters so that a priest ignorant of Arabic script could read the psalm to Arabic-speakersin the congregation. See Rachid Haddad, La phontique de larabe chrtien vers 700 in: Pierre Canivetand Jean-Paul Rey-Coquais (eds.), La Syrie de Byzance lIslam, VII e-VIII e sicles (Damascus: InstitutFranais de Damas, 1992), pp. 159-64.


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you asked that I explain the truth of this to you, and also the truth of the Incarnation of

the Son of God. and his crucifixion, and the reason for that . . .

I tell you that the reason for the concealment of this mystery from the believers at this

time is their mingling with the h unafa \ [i.e., the Muslims], and the disappearance of their

[Coptic] language, through which they know the truth of their religion. It has come to be

the case that they do not hear any mention of the Trinity among themselves except

rarely; nor do they hear any mention of the Son of God except in a metaphorical sense.

Instead, most of what they hear is that God is fard, samad, and the rest of the language

that the hunaf a\ use. The believers have become accustomed to this, and have been

raised with it, so that the mention of the Son of God has come to be difficult for them;

they do not know any interpretation or meaning for it.

To put the matter simply, during the period of language shift many Christians

could no longer understand what was being said in church, but could understood perfectly

well what was being said at the mosque. There can be no surprise that eventually many

Christians within the Da \r al-Isl a\m converted to Islam -- a process that began in earnest in

some parts of the Abbasid Empire in the late eighth century, and in Egypt a little later,

according to the historical demographic studies of Prof. Richard Bulliet. (8)

Arabic as a Christian language!

However, it was also in the late eighth century that Christian teachers and pastors

began to respond to the arabization of Christian communities seriously by creating a

Christian literature in Arabic .(9) Many of these early Arabic Christian texts were

translations from Greek or from Syriac, especially of the Scriptures, the lives of the saints

(8) Richard W. Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979).(9) The oldest dated Arabic Christian text is a Greek martyrdom account translated into Arabic in A.H. 155(A.D. 772). See Sidney H. Griffith, Greek into Arabic: Life and Letters in the Monasteries of Palestine inthe Ninth Century, Byzantion 56 (1986): 117-38 (among other important essays).


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and martyrs, and the homilies of the church fathers. In this way, many of the chief texts

used in the formation of Christian imagination and character came to be available in

Arabic. (10)

However, the earliest Arabic Christian literature was not just a literature of

translation -- as important as these translations were for the future of Christianity in the

Middle East. Toward the end of the eighth century A.D. Christian thinkers also began to

compose works of theology and of Christian edification in Arabic. We shall look at the

character of some of these works in my second essay. For now, let us look at the

introduction to an Arabic Christian theological treatise sometimes called "On the Triune

Nature of God." This work is preserved in a manuscript written around the year A.D. 800

and preserved at the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai as Sinai Arabic 154.Keep in mind that the author is a Christian theologian, who writes in order to explain

Christian doctrine , as you listen to the language of the introduction to his book: (11)

Praise be to God

before whom there was nothing,

and He was before all things;

after whom there is nothing,

and He is the Heir of all things,and to Him is the destiny of all things;

who has preserved in His knowledge the knowledge of all things

(and nothing but His knowledge is vast enough for this);

in whose knowledge all things come to their end;

and who has numbered all things in His knowledge.

(10) The primary resource for studying this material is: Georg Graf, Geschichte des christlichen arabischen Literatur, Vol. I (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944). Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, sj, hastaken upon himself the ambitious project of updating this volume.(11) My translation from Sinai Arabic 154, f. 99 r , previously published in Mark N. Swanson, "BeyondProoftexting: Approaches to the Qur'a \n in Some Early Arabic Christian Apologies, The Muslim World 88(1998): 305-8. An edition of the Arabic text of the manuscript, with an English translation, was published acentury ago by Margaret Dunlop Gibson, An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the SevenCatholic Epistles, from an Eighth or Ninth Century MS in the Convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai,with a Treatise 'On the Triune Nature of God' , Studia Sinaitica 7 (London: C.J. Clay and Sons, 1899). It isMrs. Gibson who gave the apologetic treatise the title "On the Triune Nature of God."


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We ask you, O God, by your mercy and power, that you make us to be among those who know your Truth,

who follow your good pleasure,and who avoid your wrath;

who give praise using your most beautiful names,and who speak using your most sublime similitudes.

You are the merciful one, the merciful Lord of mercy.You sat on the throne,

were exalted above all creatures,and filled all things.

You give preference to what you will, but are not subject to others preferring;

you establish your judgements, but are not subject to others judging;

you have no need of us, but we are in need of you.

You are near to the one who draws near to you,and responsive to the one who calls upon you and prays to you.

For you, O God, are Lord of all things,and God of all things,

and Creator of all things.

Open our mouths,loose our tongues,

soften our hearts,and lay open our breasts,

that we might praise your noble Name,which is exalted and great,

blessed and holy!There is no God before you,

and no God after you.To you is the destiny [of all things],

and all things are in the disposal of your power.

From the opening "Praise be to God" ( al-h amdu li-ll a\h), through the praise of

God as "the merciful Lord of mercy" who "sat on the Throne" ( ar-rah ma \nu r-rah m /ala \

l-arshi stawayta ) , to the closing "To you is the destiny of all things, and all things are in

the disposal of your power" ( ilayka l-mas r / wa-anta ala \ kulli shayin qad r ) , the


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